Astros leaving Florida bruised, battered

Share this:

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Seven weeks ago, as the truck was being loaded for the trip to Florida and a new season, general manager Ed Wade did not hesitate when asked his top priority for spring training.

It wasn’t improving the offense. It wasn’t finding a fifth starter. It wasn’t sorting through at least a dozen relievers who had a shot. It wasn’t solidifying Brett Wallace as the first baseman.

What was the most important thing?

“Health.”

OK, how about the second most important?

A year after losing both Lance Berkman for a month and counted-on reliever Alberto Arias for a year in spring training, the Astros did not end up much better as they packed up Monday and prepared to leave Florida.

They will head to Philadelphia on Friday without a quarter of their projected starting position players, as Jason Castro went down to a torn ACL on March 4 and Clint Barmes went tumbling after (broken hand, out until May).

As much as manager Brad Mills wanted to say it’s been a good camp despite the Astros’ Grapefruit League-worst 11-23 record, he couldn’t get past losing the starting catcher and starting shortstop.

“You can’t put them aside,” Mills said. “You just can’t.

“You want to be strong up the middle, and coming into camp we were very strong up the middle, and then you lose your catcher and your shortstop. But we’ve got some guys. (Angel Sanchez) played very well for us last year. (Humberto Quintero) has done well. We’re going to wait and see how (J.R. Towles) is, but we have some more-than-adequate guys to fill in.”

And then there’s Towles.

Roster spot in question

Projected as the second catcher on the roster, Towles woke up on Saturday with back spasms. Monday, he remained back at the Astros’ complex in Kissimmee and was able to take 25 swings off a tee without incident, but the Astros cannot commit to a roster spot for him if he’s not healthy.

“It’s too early for me to make that call with a game tomorrow night and a game Wednesday night,” Mills said of the injury’s bearing on the roster. “If he hasn’t played, it very well could be, but it’s too early to even have that speculation. We’ll see how he is (today) for the flight to Oklahoma City, and then we’ll go from there.”

It’s hard to say how much the injuries will hamper the product on the field. For Castro, the development time is the most important thing being missed – the Astros will head into 2012 with the same questions they had hoped to have answered by the end of 2011.

The four to six weeks for Barmes could be a bigger loss, as he was being counted on to add some power to a lineup that was severely lacking it, and whether the replacement is Sanchez or Tommy Manzella, that element will be missing.

Sanchez, Rodriguez back

Alberto Arias didn’t help his cause with a slow recovery from last year’s shoulder surgery, but Jeff Keppinger and the rest of the injuries resolved themselves. Sanchez was back in the starting lineup Monday after lingering soreness from a lower back strain, went 3-for-4 and played six innings at shortstop. Wandy Rodriguez missed a turn with shoulder tendinitis but is two starts removed from that.

But it’s impossible to look past the Barmes injury and especially the loss of Castro for the year or close to it and still think of spring training 2011 as a success.